Can Canada's teflon Liberal Party strike back?
By Jackson Murphy
web posted February 16, 2004
If it weren't for a prominent and peculiarly dressed hockey
commentator named "Grapes" and a cigar chomping plastic
comic dog named "Triumph" that have sucked up valuable
headlines, the scandal in Ottawa last week might have truly
reached epic proportions. While it may not have eclipsed the
media frenzy over Janet Jackson's Super Bowl flashing, the new
whispers of scandal in Canada may actually have some legs this
time.
The only question is whether this scandal is really going to stick
to the Teflon Liberal Party of Canada this time? Why this
scandal? Why now?
This time the figure is comparatively low. The estimate is that
$100 million of federal funds, which was part of a larger $250
million sponsorship program meant to raise the governments
profile in Quebec after the 1995 referendum, went to Liberal
friendly and Quebec based communications companies.
To put this into perspective, the $100 million is only 100 times
more than the government doled out to bring American late night
television show host Conan O'Brien to Toronto for a week. And
perhaps that was some sort of ploy by Prime Minister Paul
Martin to move his woes from page one.
It is only 20 times more than the government overspent thanks to
the freewheeling "Queen of Canada" Adrienne Clarkson. Her
$5.3 million state visit to Russia, Finland, and Iceland with 59
members of the cultural community was originally reported to
cost only $1.5 million. To be fair the media was wrong on the
original cost. It was supposed to have cost $4.5 million, so
technically they only overspent by $800,000. Again, compare
that to the $1 million for puppet dogs insulting Quebec and it's
actually a bargain.
Again this paltry sum pales in comparison to the $2 billion that
has been squandered by the current Liberal government on a gun
registration program originally estimated to cost only $1 million.
Most of this money was spent on a computer system designed to
track guns that still doesn't completely work. I don't need a $2
billion computer to help me figure that math out.
People are now beginning to smell blood in the water and
express suitable outrage. But where were they the last decade?
The Vancouver Sun's Pete McMartin explains, "Eastern voters
winked at a billion wasted dollars in Public Works, a billion
wasted dollars on a gun registry, and Jean Chretien's shenanigans
in Shawinigan, and still voted Liberal. They abided waste and
trough-feeding that would make a Baath party operative blush,
but they cringed at the prospect of, horrors, a leader of the
Opposition who was so cornball as to be pro-life."
As McMartin sees it, this isn't a scandal at all. This is Canadian
politics.
But will that translate into electoral gold for the new
Conservative Party or the rejuvenated New Democratic Party?
That's a tough one. But let's try throwing a "Star Wars" movie
analogy at this to see where we are.
If this scandal does indeed have legs we are either at two places
in the "Star Wars" storyline. First we could be at the end of
Episode IV. The original Death Star has been blown up and the
Rebel Alliance is celebrating and handing out medals.
Translation: The Liberal Death Star has been blown up, the only
problem, that we cannot now forget, is that after this is the
"Empire Strikes Back." So we would be looking at yet another
term of Liberal Government as they use the Jedi mind trick and
say, "these aren't the scandals you are looking for."
The Second spot in the world of "Star Wars" that might make
sense is the end of "Return of the Jedi" where the Rebels blow
up the second Death Star and celebrate in the forests of Endor
with the Ewoks triumphant over the evil Empire. Translation: The
Liberal Death Star is blown up for real this, the Empire is
finished, and the Conservative Party forms a new government
after the next election. For some this could be about as
believable as a story from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far,
away.
The reality is that the Liberals for the first time in a long while
look vulnerable. The first glimpse of this was the polling numbers
showing a 9 per cent drop in the national polls since January in
the days following the Auditor General's report. That is
significant.
But the proof will be in the voting. Are Canadians are really
ready to trust another party or another leader with the ship of
state. In the past two elections the choice was obvious; the
people didn't have the confidence that anyone could do a better
job than the Liberals. Scandal or not, that case still has to made
by the new Conservative Party or the New Democrats.
Will the Liberal Party strike back or will they go down in defeat?
Time will tell.
Jackson Murphy is a commentator from Vancouver, Canada.
He is a senior writer at Enter Stage Right, a columnist for
Bureacrash.ca and a regular contributor to American Daily.com,
Men's News Daily, and The Reality Check. He is also the editor
of "Dispatches" a website that serves up political commentary
24-7.
Enter Stage Right -- http://www.enterstageright.com